St. Paul, Minnesota rapper Eyedea has passed away, CNN has confirmed. The artist, born Michael Larsen, was 28. No other details about his passing have been released.

Eyedea, who came to fame as part of the indie label Rhymesayers, was well-known for his tight delivery as well as for holding his own in freestyle battles, such as HBO’s “Blaze Battle” and Ohio’s “Scribble Jam.”

In a statement on the label's website, his mother said, "It is with great pain and sadness that I tell you my son Mikey (Eyedea) has passed away. At this time we kindly request you respect our privacy as we process this devastating loss."

The 22-year-old college student from Mississippi is the first winner of Fox's reality cooking show, "MasterChef." Her competitors were older, but the southern girl from the small town of Poplarville didn't back down. The finale brought her face to face with a 29-year-old lead software engineer from Massachusetts.

He prepared beef Wellington for his entrée while Whitney prepared a southern fried chicken breast over creamed collard greens. But when she was transferring the chicken to the plate, one of the worst things that could happen in a reality cooking competition did: The chicken fell to the floor.

Megan Fox doesn't seem to be in a hurry to ditch her on-screen bad girl reputation.

After playing naughty characters in "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" and "Jennifer's Body," brunette bombshell Megan Fox has now been cast as the other woman in an upcoming comedy starring "Mad Men" heartthrob Jon Hamm and "Saturday Night Live" cutup Kristen Wiig.

"Friends With Kids" tells the story of a couple (Jennifer Westfeldt and Adam Scott) who realize that children are taking a toll on the relationships of their friends (including Wiig and Hamm), so they decide to have a baby of their own but still date other people, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Fox, 24, will play a woman whom Scott, 37, dates.

"The Big Bang Theory" star Johnny Galecki is about to explode onto the big screen with a starring role opposite Justin Timberlake in a new sci-fi thriller.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Galecki, 35, has been cast in "I'm.Mortal," a futuristic story about avoiding overpopulation in which people stop aging at 25 and time is used as currency. That means the rich can go on living forever while those less fortunate must negotiate ways to extend their existence.

Galecki is set to play Timberlake's best friend, an alcoholic father who uses up all of his family's excess time.

Taylor Swift’s most vocal fans (a.k.a. tween girls) quickly realized they wouldn’t be first in line to buy the singer’s new album on October 25 – they’d be in school. So they turned to their favorite medium to get the release date declared a national holiday.

A Twitter petition, or Twitition, was started last week for all Swifties. The website states their cause:

“Help persuade Swiftie's parents to let the true Swifties stay home from school, or at least half of the school day, on October 25th, 2009, in order to buy Taylor's 'Speak Now' album when store doors open. Please Sign!”

Of course, they got the year wrong. And only 158 people have joined the cause so far. But you can’t let tiny details like that stand in the way of true fandom.